The use of a capo is really a crutch for inferior players.Or, it is used to accompany singers who absolutely must sing flat in flat keys ..

Most really accomplished guitarists shun them.

Quoting: Waterbug

I don't see why it matters. It sounds good or it doesn't. Who decided it's a crutch for inferior players? Based on what?

"Most" shun them? So some really accomplished players don't shun them? How is that possible - according to you, that would make them inferior?

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32961307

The guitar is muffled when a capo is used. The natural resonance suffers because of harmonicdissonnance.The tonal qualities that a guitar is built to achieve are defeated by a capo.Of course, an electric guitar is not affected nearly as much.

Lenny Breau... the greatest guitarist you've never heard of.I sat in the dressing room and watched him warm up for alive taping of The Carl Smith show around '68, I think it was. Freight train on an acoustic guitar.. This is where he took it.

In the last couple of years of his life he was in bad shapefrom drug and alcohol abuse.He did a regular gig at a bar in Nashville where I often went to see and hear him perform whne I was home.Had to be helped onto his stool.Still played better than most.. right up until he died.

Some good links here... [link to www.guitarzone.com] [snip]Before Lenny Breau, no one had ever thought of the guitar as an unlimited harmonic/melodic instrument. It could be used for either purpose freely, or with a simple bassline with restrictions, but Lenny's innovation was to merge all of those capabilities with a simultaneous freedom that has yet to be reproduced today- more than 20 years after his death. He is also the father of artificial harmonics la Tommy Emmanuel as we know them today. All in standard tuning, no less!

Among the guests featured are: George Benson, Steve Vai, Pat Metheny, Leonard Cohen, Ted Greene, Chet Atkins, Tal Farlow, Liona Boyd, and other non guitar-players. Vai's got a good quote in the third segment:

"...After a while I was able to discern the difference between, you know... As Frank Zappa says, 'good noodling and bad noodling.' And ah, even when Lenny was just noodling, it was a feast."

Damn right!! Page is genius. Not nescessarily the fastest, but surely the most imaginative any day.Now check this out, it's fucking nuts. The whole thing drives from the power of Bonham and Jonesy, with page doing slide guitar at 4:45 and 6:45. I never tire of watching this! [link to www.youtube.com]